Julie Williams with the pertinent details, though they don't get much more self explanatory than this: 11 wins in 13 tournaments for the "unofficial" record and they did it by 20 shots.

This time it was the NCAA Regional and as the Cal athletics page notes, it's not just this year that makes it such an amazing run.

With the victory, Cal will advance to the 30-team field at the NCAA Championship hosted by Georgia Tech May 28 - June 2 at the Capital City Club in Alpharetta, Ga. Cal will be playing at the NCAA Championship for a school-record fourth consecutive season and the ninth time in school history. Cal will enter the NCAA Championship having won 17 of its last 27 tournaments overall dating back to the beginning of the 2011-12 campaign and having finished in the top five in all 27.

Reader Comments (11)

Cal's resources give it an unfair advantage relative to the rest of college golf. A driving range up the Berkeley hills at Tilden or 20 minutes down the 880 highway at Metropolitan Golf Links...what other schools can compete with that?

@ Kevin - Are you joking or being sarcastic? Having been on the team, I can tell you from experience, this is not the case.

I will qualify these statements by saying things may have changed in some ways but I would thing the majority of this hold true:

Tilden Park is not a premier practice facility. The driving range has two tiers and features mats and distance restricted balls. The team rarely played the golf course.

Cal is a top tier university and golf does not generate revenue for the school as evidenced by Desimone's dedication to the endowment efforts. Along these lines the majority of professors are less likely to make exceptions. Classes need to be scheduled around making sure you make it to the golf course in the afternoon. This is not always easy. Getting in and out of Berkeley and battling Bay Area traffic to make it to golf courses that range from San Mateo (Meadow Club), SFGC or even Pleasanton would be in direct opposition to your statements.

One of the difficulties in obtaining top players in the past was because of these issues. I'd imagine the recent success will mitigate these problems but the environment is a challenge and I know only certain types of players thrive.

Then, there is getting up for 8 AM class the next day and doing it all over again.

Compare this to true "golf schools" or Stanford which has an actual practice facility on campus with a golf course.

@D. I'm pretty sure Kevin part deux was using his well honed Shackelfordian sense of irony. The Cal Golf Team has been covered here before and we are aware they are outstanding despite the lack of support from the UC–Berkeley sports administration, which is more interested in selling seat licenses in a renovated stadium for a mediocre football team than anything else. Or something.

At Metropolitan, Cal does have there own area at the range and a private green for chipping and putting. The range itself is just a dust bowl of hard dirt and weeds.

The course itself is a faux links style course that is in horrible condition most of the time. CourseCo, the management company (run by a Stanford guy) are slumlords at running public and munis golf courses in California.

With all this said, it's amazing that Cal is able to attract talented golfers and make a run at the national championship?

Out of curiosity, what IS the secret? How did the program grow? It's a difficult school academically with sub-par facilities -- is the coach a Yoda-like wizard, or are there friendly alums with connections to great courses in the Bay Area? Or...